Study Hacks: The following question came from a sophomore finance major at a well-known state university: I have read and heard that entry-level investment bankers have to work long hours doing meaningless grunt work assigned by bosses (sometimes portrayed as evil)…How can your career craftsman philosophy be applied to high stakes fields such as finance? This reader believed in my career philosophy and was perfectly happy to sidestep the flawed idea that he should “follow his passion.” But the option of heading into investment banking — a popular choice for his major at his university — was making him nervous. The requirements for standing out in this field seemed brutal and he wasn’t inspired by the rewards you can obtain for banking stardom (more respect and money in exchange for more work hours and stress). I told him not to become an investment banker.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Can I Be Happy as an Investment Banker?
Study Hacks: The following question came from a sophomore finance major at a well-known state university: I have read and heard that entry-level investment bankers have to work long hours doing meaningless grunt work assigned by bosses (sometimes portrayed as evil)…How can your career craftsman philosophy be applied to high stakes fields such as finance? This reader believed in my career philosophy and was perfectly happy to sidestep the flawed idea that he should “follow his passion.” But the option of heading into investment banking — a popular choice for his major at his university — was making him nervous. The requirements for standing out in this field seemed brutal and he wasn’t inspired by the rewards you can obtain for banking stardom (more respect and money in exchange for more work hours and stress). I told him not to become an investment banker.
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6 comments:
This is such a foreign topic for me. Investment banking sounds like the biggest drag in the world so, of course, I myself would never imagine anyone being happy with that as their career. I've known that I have to have a life in the arts for id say the majority of my life. We have all been told at least once in our life by someone that pursing a life in the arts is silly and wont make us any money. My argument is that it may not make me money but it will make me happy. If the person in the article is truly in love with investment banking then I feel that he should have no doubt in his mind as to whether he should do it or not.
While I have absolutely no desire to pursue investment banking, I believe that the ideas the author of the piece makes an interesting point about life goals, mostly the fact that you have to figure out some idea as to what large landmarks you want to hit in life, then figure out what you should do to achieve them. However, I think that she discounts the idea that if one of your life goals is to be happy, following your passions might be the best way to do that.
I would say that either situation sounds like a no, you cannot be happy. In one case you might be happy outside of work, but people spend a lot of time working in their lives. The other case is you love your job but you stress as you try to make ends meet. It is a trade-off each person must make. Would you rather enjoy your work or your free time? I think for most people here we have choosen to follow our passion, but maybe we will be the lucky ones who can meet our needs while following our passions.
This article was really scary. I was going to post an actual comment, but now I have to go hide from the real world under a blanket somewhere.
This does not count as one of my comment.
It is interesting that this article is posted here, because it seems that a good percentage of the school of drama does not heed its advice. The article suggests that in choosing a career, one should not think of the career itself. Rather, they should think about what specifically they want out of life. These broader goals may include financial freedom, job stability, positive social contribution, or fame and influence. Working in theatre we will certainly never have the first two of these, and most of the others are a long shot. I don’t want to attempt a broad characterization of why we are all deciding to pursue theatre, because I know everyone has their own deeply personal reason, however I think It is safe to assume that many of us are here primarily so that we can work in theatre. We may well have other, broader goals but these are secondary to our love of theatre. This article suggests that we will get more fulfillment out of our career if we have broader life goals as our primary focus. This is something I am currently working on. I’m trying to figure out how to make my career in theatre apply to what I want out of my life.
I think that what Meg says is true. That often people are trading off what they want to do with what they can do to make money and use that money to go do interesting things for themselves. It's unfortunate that people often end in mundane jobs because they wish to gain money. In my opinion (and probably most people who are at this school), their interest in what they do on a daily basis as a job is more important to them than making money, and that has to do with what field I've chosen. Other people are able to deal with the monotony of a job they don't enjoy to go out and pursue things they can do with the money they make. It's not my personal choice, but it just depends on what you want out of life.
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